Petrarch. I see that the doctrine in the treatise of Pythagoras, of which I have heard tell and have read, is by no means void of truth. For when travelling the right road, still temperate and modest, I had reached the parting of the ways and had been bidden to turn to the right hand, whether from carelessness or perversity I know not, behold I turned to the left; and what I had read in my boyhood was of no profit to me—
"Here the ways part: the right will thee conduct
To the walled palace of the mighty King
And to Elysium, but the left will lead
Where sin is punished and the malefactor
Goes to his dreaded doom."[9]
Although I had read of all this before, yet I understood it not until I found it by experience. Afterwards I went wrong, in this foul and crooked pathway, and often in mind went back with tears and sorrow, yet could not keep the right way; and it was when I left that way, yes, that was certainly the time when all this confusion in my life began.
S. Augustine. And in what period of your age did this take place?
Petrarch. About the middle of my growing youth. But if you give me a minute or two, I think I can recall the exact year when it took place.
S. Augustine. I do not ask for the precise date, but tell me about when was it that you saw the form and feature of this woman for the first time?
Petrarch. Never assuredly shall I forget that day.
S. Augustine. Well now, put two and two together; compare the two dates.
Petrarch. I must confess in truth they coincide. I first saw her and I turned from my right course at one and the same time.
S. Augustine. That is all I wanted. You became infatuated. The unwonted dazzle blinded your eyes, so I believe. For they say the first effect of love is blindness. So one reads in the poet most conversant with Nature—